Challenges at 12 and 16: Views on Some Aspects of Secondary Education in a Former Coal Mining Town in Northern England, 5(15)
Mike Coldwell
and
Mike Holland
Sheffield Hallam University
Abstract
In this paper, we discuss views of pupils, parents and teachers in a deprived area, Coalton, in the North of England. Funding to regenerate the area was used to improve educational attainment, and as part of the work to assess its success a large-scale longitudinal survey was conducted. In this paper, views of 12-year-olds on transfer to secondary school and views of 16-year-olds on leaving school, as well as views of their parents and teachers, are presented. In addition, we examine differences in attitudes to school between the 12-year-olds and 16-year-olds. We conclude that pupil attitudes appear to deteriorate throughout the years of secondary education and that projects aiming to tackle this problem should be supported. We briefly report on one such project in Coalton.
Background to the Research
The interim findings of the longitudinal study are being fed back to headteachers and the District School Improvement Service so that they can be used to inform school development planning. Increasing the effectiveness of teaching and learning is the main thrust and there are clearly many implications for school leaders. For example, how can teachers’ pedagogic skills be enhanced? What contribution can Information Technology make and can opportunities be created that extend the learning opportunities outside the confines of the classroom and the boundaries of the working day? Models of school organization might need to be reconsidered that differ from a hierarchical management structure based on subject divisions (Male, 1999).
The central government funding for regeneration projects–the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB)–aims to develop new employment opportunities and to improve educational provision for all age groups with the overall aim of "improving the attitudes in the community, particularly amongst the young towards education and training, to raise levels of attainment and improve prospects of employment." To try to meet this rather all-encompassing aim, a regeneration project –"Highway to Success"–was developed in Coalton. The educational element of this programme was based around seven themes, five of which (making a good start in school, family learning, key curriculum skills, transitions in school, and leaving school or college) impact directly on pre-school and school-age children. The projects funded as part of the programme varied in size and scope, but they had the shared aim of improving attainment in schools, which has been a top government priority since the Labour government took office in 1997.
Ambitious targets for raising the attainment of school pupils have been set at national, local district, and school level, with national attainment testing at ages 5, 7, 11, 14, and 16 years now established. All schools are subject to monitoring by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) and schools that are not making adequate progress towards raising standards receive additional support (and in some instances are closed). The UK system is based on age-related assumptions about what pupils should know and be able to do and is fundamentally linear, which is reflected on the grade levels of the National Curriculum–about one grade-level improvement for each 1.5 years of study, on average. We regard this view of learning as being simplistic and unrealistic in the context of a post-modern world in which much learning is not easily controlled (for example, learning related to use of the internet). ) see this shift as "an incremental shift from individual learning to collective knowledge, from organisations serving individuals to individuals accommodating organisations" (p. 33).
The Blair Labour administration has funded many other strategies also designed to raise levels of achievement, some of which were initiated by the previous Conservative administration. These include: literacy hours, numeracy hours, establishing study support centres and homework clubs, beacon schools, schemes for the gifted and talented in cities, and specialist school status for technology, sport, and arts. These initiatives are taking place simultaneously with the specific projects funded by regeneration budgets, which means that it will be difficult to establish with certainty how each contributes to the raising of achievement. Hence the need to be able to monitor changes in attitudes towards education over time.
Research Question
The paper also addresses three sub-questions:
- How do children manage the transition from primary (elementary) school to secondary school in this Local Education Authority (LEA)?
- What are children’s views on the transition from school at 16?
- How do parents and teachers understand these issues?
Since these are two cross-sectional samples, the results should be treated with care. Clearly, the differences we find at this stage between results from the 12-year-old cohort and the 16-year-old cohort do not tell us about changes in attitudes of the 12-year-old cohort. The aim is primarily to help gather data for theory building, predictions for longitudinal results, and comparisons with the literature. In fact, these findings do indicate the trends that appear to take place in attitudes to school of young people over time (the findings are supported by other studies, including the few longitudinal ones that have taken place in the UK–see the next section).
The aim is, in the longer term, to attempt to link the attitudinal findings to academic achievement data. If we examine standard measures of achievement over recent years, it can be seen that Coalton appears to have been improving at a faster rate than the national average, but Coalton’s academic achievement levels remain well below the English national average (see Table 1 below).
Table 1: GCSEiv attainment in Coalton
and in England 1997-2000
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
Change 1997- 2000
|
|
| % of Coalton pupils attaining 5 or more A*-C grade GCSEs |
28.8
|
29.9
|
32.5
|
34.9
|
6.1
|
| Percentage points change (year on year) |
1.1
|
2.6
|
2.4
|
6.1
|
|
| Percentage change (year on year) |
3.8
|
8.7
|
7.4
|
21.2
|
|
| % of pupils in England attaining 5 or more A*-C grade GCSEs |
45.1
|
46.3
|
47.9
|
49.2
|
4.1
|
| Percentage points change |
1.2
|
1.6
|
1.3
|
4.1
|
|
| Percentage change (year on year) |
2.7
|
3.5
|
2.7
|
10.9
|
English measures of achievement have been recently challenged on the grounds of accuracy and validity since the UK Government controls the testing authorities and is in a position to influence pass rates and grades. For example, in the Year 7 SATs tests, the majority of the markers (Year 2000) are teachers of that age range and have access to questions two months in advance of the tests. The consistency of the marking (particularly in English) has been the subject of much debate in schools and in the educational press. There have been examples of unfair practices in the conduct of tests, particularly in primary schools.
The validity of making judgements from National level tests, such as data in the Autumn Package, has been researched recently and this work will be used to explore issues such as internal variations between schools, contextual information–for example a socio-economic indicator is the percentage of free school meals, how past relationships from previous cohorts of pupils are being used to predict the performance of future cohorts, the effects of continuous change in schools, statistical uncertainty, educational as well as statistical significance, if pupil views have been sought, and the difficulty of analysing the results of small classes, departments, and schools.
Despite these reservations about national test results, the research team decided to look for relationships between age 11 test results in 1998 and the survey responses. This matching will also be done when the age 12 cohorts’ test results are known at age 14 and 16. An assumption behind the funding of regeneration projects and of the educational performance standards movement being followed by the present government is that higher test scores in education will lead to a more highly skilled and productive workforce. Work from the United States (Levin, 1998) indicates that there is at best only weak evidence for this claim.
Methodology
Table 2: Schedule for data collection in the Highway to Success evaluation
|
1998 |
|
|
2001 |
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
Reception Parents (S) Parents (Q) Teachers (F) |
|
SATsvi |
Year 3 Parents (Q) Teachers (F) |
Year 4 Parents (S) |
|
|
|
Year 7 Pupils (S) Parents (Q) Teachers (F) |
|
SATs |
Year 10 Pupils (S) Employers (F) |
Year 11 Pupils (S) Employers (F) |
|
|
|
||||||
|
Year 11 Pupils (S) Parents (Q) Employers (F) |
|
|
Reception Parents (S) Parents (Q) Teachers (F) |
Year 7 Pupils (S) Parents (Q) Teachers (F) |
|
|
Notes
- (S) Denotes Statistical Study
- (Q) Denotes Qualitative Study
- (F) Denotes Focus Groups
- Year 11 corresponds to the year in which a pupil becomes 16, and leaves compulsory education.
- Year 7 corresponds to age 12. This is the year in which a pupil moves from primary to secondary school.
The sample of parents for the age 5 survey was found by using a database of parents provided by the LEA, and interviews were obtained by selecting every second name on it. This produced a representative random sample. The sample of 12- and 16-year-olds was obtained by asking all secondary schools to provide a mixed ability group of pupils. Each school was given a target number of pupils, based on the number of pupils on the school roll. It was hoped that the participation of all Coalton secondary schools and the mixed ability grouping would allow a natural cross-section of socio-economic groups. This was a compromise between randomness and practicality. However, there were problems: one school could not provide a Year 11 sample because it was so close to the leaving date, and consequently some schools were over- and under-sampled.
There were further difficulties. The proposed teacher focus groups failed to attract support from teachers: we received only a handful of positive responses. Possible reasons for this include:
- Teachers’ lack of awareness of the Highway to Success projects: We are looking at funding for this from the TEC [Training and Enterprise Council], also the New Opportunities Fund [NOF] as well as SRB [Single Regeneration Budget]. (Coalton teacher).
- Coalton as a "research laboratory." The town of Coalton has secured funding for a broad range of initiatives in the areas of urban regeneration as well as education. Teachers feel that they are involved in a vast range of new initiatives. One school we worked with is involved in SRB projects, an Education Action Zone and a variety of Department for Education (DfEE) projects (among other initiatives). Small wonder that teachers from this school were unwilling to take up more time with interviews and focus groups.
- There was a further issue of a "work to rule" directive given to teachers by their trade unions, which did not included co-operation with researchers collecting data. Headteachers would not release teachers during the school day and teachers were generally not prepared to come to a focus group after school.
- Contacts were made with teachers at various levels of the hierarchy from careers teachers and teachers with pastoral responsibility to Deputy Headteachers and Headteachers.
- The team gained an understanding of the local environment . Teachers had opinions on aspects of local environment, such as the relatively poor performance of boys and the so-called "Coalton culture." This tells us as much about teachers’ attitudes as about what is actually going on, but this is also valuable in understanding Coalton.
Preliminary Findings
There are some differences between the two samples. The Year 7 survey had 1,035 responses, in keeping with the sample design, except for over-representation of Parkway School (175, compared with the sample target of 120) and under-representation of two schools (Downton High School–70, compared with the target 100, and Hallmount school—42, not 70). The Year 11 survey had 766 responses, with most schools slightly under-represented compared with the target, although none were substantially under-represented, except for two schools that did not respond at all (Weatherford School and Portreach School). Other than this, the samples were similar. These slight differences should be borne in mind when looking at the comparisons, but the effects should not be great.
Our study indicates that older children have far less positive attitudes to school in general, and aspects of the curriculum in particular. In addition, boys are less positive than girls. (This is consistent with other research in this field, e.g., Keys & Fernandez, 1993; Blatchford, 1996). An example of this is the differing attitudes to particular school subjects. Children from the Coalton schools were asked whether they enjoyed particular school subjects. The results are shown in Figures 1 and 2.
Every compulsory subject was less popular with 16-year-old boys than with 12-year-old boys, with the exception of mathematics. The same was true of girls with the exception of English. Some subjects were dramatically different; for example, modern languages (MFL) was popular with 55% of both 12-year-old boys and 12-year-old girls. However just 19% of 16-year-old boys and 42% of girls enjoyed modern languages. Some subjects fared better; physical education was popular with both 12-year-old boys (94%) and 16-year-old boys (88%). Differences in enjoyment of the core subjects of English and mathematics were slight, whereas science was far less popular with 16-year-olds of both sexes.
These findings are broadly consistent with the published research in
the field (e.g., Whitehead 1996; Thomas
1990), although, in common with Francis (2000),
we find that mathematics is more popular among older girls than in these
previous studies. The popularity of technology amongst girls appears to
be higher than in other studies, although it must be borne in mind that
"technology" includes both traditionally "masculine" subjects (e.g., resistant
materials, electronics) and traditionally "feminine" subjects (e.g., textiles,
food technology). There were also major differences between pupils’ interest
in and understanding of schoolwork, homework, and their relationships with
teachers:
| Table 3: How do you find your school work? (%) | |||||||||
| Boys | Girls | Overall | |||||||
| Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | |
| Interesting
OK Boring |
20
69 11 |
9
64 27 |
-11
-5 +16 |
28
65 7 |
14
75 11 |
-14
+10 +4 |
24
67 9 |
11
69 20 |
-13
+2 +11 |
Boys in both year groups tend to be less positive about their schoolwork,
but for both boys and girls the level of interest is markedly lower in
Year 11 than in Year 7. There were differences in the amount of time spent
on homework:
| Table 4: How much time do you spend on your homework? (%) | |||||||||
| Boys | Girls | Overall | |||||||
| Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | |
| < 1/2 hour
1/2 -1 hour 1-11/2 hours 11/2-2 hours > 2 hours |
27
42 19 9 3 |
33
31 25 6 6 |
+6
-11 +6 -3 +3 |
16
46 20 10 7 |
15
24 25 19 17 |
-1
-12 +5 +9 +10 |
22
44 20 10 5 |
25
28 25 12 11 |
+3
-16 +5 +2 +6 |
Overall, pupils spend more time on homework in Year 11, although this
finding masks gender differences. Girls clearly spend more time on homework
in Year 11, although for the boys the trend is more difficult to make out.
There were also some differences in level of understanding of homework:
| Table 5: How often do you understand your homework? (%) | |||||||||
| Boys | Girls | Overall | |||||||
| Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | |
| Always
Mostly Sometimes Never |
15
64 18 3 |
22
62 13 4 |
+7
-2 -5 +1 |
17
67 14 3 |
15
75 8 2 |
-2
+8 -6 -1 |
16
68 11 4 |
18
65 16 3 |
+2
-3 +5 -1 |
In Year 11, girls are more likely to understand their homework most
of the time, whereas there again there is no obvious pattern for the boys.
In terms of interest in homework, there were more obvious differences:
| Table 6: How do you find your homework? (%) | |||||||||
| Boys | Girls | Overall | |||||||
| Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | |
| Interesting
OK Boring |
10
63 27 |
4
44 52 |
-6
-19 +25 |
14
72 14 |
4
67 29 |
-10
-5 +15 |
12
67 21 |
4
55 41 |
-8
-12 +20 |
The level of interest amongst boys and girls is much lower in Year 11.
The difference is largest amongst boys, despite their finding homework
substantially less interesting than girls even in Year 7 (these findings
tally with those of other comparable UK studies such as Keys
& Fernandez, 1993; Barber, 1994; and Blatchford,
1996; and studies specifically looking at gender and attitudes to school,
e.g., Harris, Nixon, & Rudduck, 1993; Warrington,
Younger, & Williams, 2000). There are also differences in punctuality
with homework:
| Table 7: How often do you hand homework in on time? (%) | |||||||||
| Boys | Girls | Overall | |||||||
| Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | Year 7 | Year 11 | Diff. | |
| Usually
Sometimes Hardly ever |
70
25 5 |
58
34 8 |
-12
+9 +3 |
81
17 2 |
68
28 4 |
-13
+11 +2 |
75
21 4 |
62
31 7 |
-13
+10 +3 |
Punctuality was worse amongst boys and girls in Year 11. The difference in terms of percentage points is around the same for both boys and girls, although boys were much less punctual in Year 7 (and therefore remained so in Year 11).
Attitudes of 12-year-olds to the transition to secondary school
Pupil Responses
In this section, we look at some of the findings with regards to the attitudes of pupils, parents, and teachers to their transition to secondary school. Some of the questions refer to their thoughts before they arrived in school, so these answers must be treated with caution. Pupils were asked first of all what they had looked forward to before coming to secondary school. The results are shown in Figure 3.
Figure: 3 What Pupils were Looking Forward to at their New School
It is clear from our study that knowing someone else in the school was associated with pupils’ attitudes to secondary school prior to arrival. Pupils who already knew someone at the school at their point of transition were more likely to report that they were looking forward to the new experiences, friends, and facilities at the new school. This can be illustrated by referring to pupils who had either an older sibling or friend at the school.
Pupils who had an older brother or sister at the new school were more likely to report that they were looking forward to making new friends (94% of those with older siblings compared to 87% of those without). They were also looking forward to having new teachers (68% of those with an older sibling compared to 62% of those without) and being treated more like an adult (80% compared to 72% of those without an older sibling).
Similarly, those pupils who had an older friend already at school were more likely to report that they were looking forward to making new friends (93% of those with an older friend and 79% of those without an older friend), studying new subjects (71% of those with an older friend and 59% of those without an older friend), having new teachers (66% of those with an older friend and 59% of those without an older friend) and being treated more like an adult (79% of those with an older friend and 65% of those without an older friend).
Figure 4 shows the responses when asked what they had worried about prior to arrival at secondary school:
Figure 4: Pupils’ Worries About Their New School
Pupils with an older brother or sister at the school were more worried about strict teachers than pupils without an older sibling (67% compared to 60% of pupils without an older sibling). Pupils with an older friend were also more likely to say that they were worried about coursework or homework (59% of those with an older friend compared to 46% of those without an older friend), strict teachers (66% of those with an older friend and 54% of those without an older friend), coming into contact with drugs (68% of those with an older friend and 59% of those without an older friend), and the school medical or taking showers (51% of those with an older friend and 36% of those without an older friend).
Taken as a whole, these results indicate that young people with prior knowledge of school via older friends or siblings feel more confident about many aspects of the transition. Yet this prior knowledge also gave the young people different worries.
Parents’ comments
Of the parents interviewed, around a quarter said that their children had outgrown primary school and were looking forward, in general terms, to moving on. Parents were looking forward to their children developing social skills and having a wider range of activities at their disposal.
Although parents’ views may not be accurate reflections of the child's worries and may in fact be their own concerns, a number of "worries" came up time and time again. These were in two categories: rumours about initiation rites, bullying, etc. and "practical" worries about the size of the school, remembering when and where lessons were, being less than confident in terms of the number of new people, changing teachers, and doing new subjects. These concerns appear to tally with the results in the previous section.
There was some considerable concern expressed regarding how schools dealt with the issue of bullying in secondary schools. One parent approached the primary school hoping that they would calm the child's fears, but that the school did not take this seriously. The parent felt that, irrespective of the truth, the rumours should be taken seriously and countered by teachers as it was causing distress to the children. Another parent said, "There was a very aggressive attitude at [the school] and a lot of bullying. The children daren’t say anything because of retribution, and the school doesn’t do anything about it."
In general terms, parents reported that their children had settled in well and made friends. One parent praised a school's initiative of setting up "friendship groups" which ensured that children attended lessons with children they knew.
Teachers’ comments
The survey report suggests that children with older siblings or friends are looking forward to coming to school more than those without, but they are more worried about things like bullying. Some of the teachers did think that those with elder siblings were more confident. One commented that "there is a sense of reassurance about having someone to look after them." Another noted that "parents are more confident as well. They are less worried about coping with big changes associated with the secondary school transfer." However, the majority of interviewees did not think there was a difference.
Several teachers made the point that all pupils were worried about bullying. One said "In October the school talks to parents and pupils interested in coming here, and bullying always comes up." Schools invested a lot of time and effort into reassuring parents. Some teachers reported that pupils often got told about fictitious "initiation rites" such as being thrown down grass banking or worse: "every year pupils think they will get their heads put down the toilets–we have to convince them that it doesn’t happen!"
Liaison between schools was mentioned by several teachers–"there is a focus on inter-school liaison … it has improved dramatically, and it is now commonplace for children and staff to see me in primary schools now," said one. This took several forms. Most teachers talked about visits to the secondary school, and several also discussed work within primary schools: "after Easter, some staff go into primary schools to teach taster lessons."
Some of the teachers emphasized the importance of form groups, and how this could be used to aid induction. For example, one Head of Lower School said "I ask the schools for friendship groups of two or three that I try to put in the same group. And I ask for an academic performance grade, information on children with SEN [special educational needs] or EBP [emotional and behavioural difficulties] and thumbnail character sketches to help me set up groups."
Attitudes of 16-year-olds to leaving school
In this section, we look at some responses of the 16-year-olds and their parents and teachers to questions regarding their future after leaving school. It is worth noting at this point that almost all youngsters in Coalton leave school at 16, since just one of the 14 secondary schools in the area allows pupils to stay on to take further qualifications. Almost all other youngsters who wish to stay in education in Coalton attend a local Further Education (FE) college in the town, Coalton College.
1. Going to college or university
Pupil responses
Forty-one percent of pupils were considering studying at a university. Girls were more likely to be planning to go to university than the boys (46% of girls and only 38% of the boys). Pupils from non-manual backgrounds were much more likely to be considering going to university than other pupils. For example, of pupils whose fathers had a professional occupation, 64% planned to go to university compared to only 30% of plant or machine operators’ children. Unsurprisingly, the staying on rate amongst pupils who were planning to go to university was much higher and ran at 87%.
The choice of what to do on leaving school was most likely to be influenced by parents/carers (45%), followed by the Careers Service (31%), teachers or a school careers lesson (28%), friends (16%), a work experience placement (16%), and lastly by family members other than parents/carers (11%). Twenty-four percent of pupils reported another "miscellaneous" influence on their decision as to what to do next year.
Gender differences emerged between the influences upon this choice. In particular, girls were more likely to be influenced by their parents/carers (51%, compared to only 41% of boys), their teachers or a school careers lesson (36%, compared to only 22% of boys), the careers service (36%, compared to 27% of boys) and friends (21%, compared to 12% of boys). Boys, on the other hand, were more likely to report an "other" influence (30%, compared to only 17% of girls). This clearly merits further investigation.
Pupils who were planning to go to university were much more likely to be influenced by parents/carers (55% of those going to university and only 40% of those not going), teachers or a school careers lessons (38% of those going to university, compared to 21% who were not), the Careers Service (39% of those going to university, compared to 26% who were not), friends (22%, compared to 12% who were not) but were less influenced by their work placement than were pupils who were not going to university (11%, compared to 18%).
Parents’ Comments
The parents reported that, although a majority had discussed both subjects taken at GCSE and plans for the future, they felt their role was one of guidance. Overall, although they felt they had a relatively small influence–only two parents had no idea what exams their children had taken–13 said that they had made joint decisions with their children. Only three said they felt the decision had been taken by the child, the parent, and the school, and four said that the decision had been the child’s. Interestingly, several parents said that timetabling difficulties and whether or not the child liked individual teachers had had as great an influence as any other factors.
Teachers’ Comments
When asked about links into Higher Education (HE)viii , some teachers thought the idea of targeting pupils for HE in Year 10 was "jumping the gun" in the words of one: "they may be targeting the wrong group; perhaps FE to HE links might be better." Another interviewee explained:
"The school [does not allow pupils to stay on until 18], and without that we tend not to push what happens after 18–it seems a long way away. But having said that, there are lots of prospectuses around. This kind of work is a lot more important at college–it has a part to play, but the school is so busy getting the pupils prepared for FE that it takes second place."
One teacher in a school that had a high take-up of Higher Education thought that raising aspirations was difficult in some schools:
"There is an atmosphere at the school of aspiring to go on to HE, which encourages all the children to think about it, even those whose parents would not have thought this a possibility. This is the true value of being a comprehensive school, with pupils from all abilities and backgrounds."
Another common theme was the value of good links with Coalton College. On the whole, teachers were very impressed with the work of college link tutors. One teacher’s comments were particularly positive:
"The pupils often see the Coalton College person; they can see him at break or during some lessons, to talk about what is on offer at the college or to ask him to find out some information for them."
These links were thought to have improved the take up of FE by some of the teachers, although opinion was divided. One said that her "gut feeling is that it has not made much difference. But it does give them enthusiasm for keeping training, but not necessarily in College. So it does support Lifelong Learning."
Another teacher was more circumspect:
"There does seem to be more pupils seeking FE places now. This could be a positive thing–seeking to improve qualifications–or it could be negative–because there are not the jobs there to go to."
2. Careers Advice
Pupil responses
It is clearly important for pupils to be given advice by their schools and teachers for the future so that they are prepared for and know how to go about applying for jobs and the different (education and training) options available to them. Over two thirds of pupils reported that they had had some sort of advice on applying for jobs. A breakdown of what help they have been given is presented in Table 8. As can be seen, advice on what qualifications to take for particular jobs and what job to do were the most frequently cited form of careers advice. Least common was advice on having a job interview.
Table 8: Careers Advice Pupils have Received at School
| Type of advice |
|
| The qualifications needed for different jobs |
|
| What job to do |
|
| Further study to do |
|
| Writing a job application |
|
| Writing a CV |
|
| Having a job interview |
|
Of those pupils who had received the above forms of advice, the majority found them to be useful. Over 80% of pupils who had received any type of advice reported that it had been useful.
Parents’ comments
Specific criticisms included that the careers advice came far too late (2 parents); that it was only useful for those that knew already what they wanted to do (2 parents, although this is contradicted in one of the following quotes); two parents were apparently completely unaware of any links between schools and further education colleges and four parents stated in strong terms that their children had been written off as failures before they’d even had any advice. Parents’ comments were mixed as the following selection indicates:
"There were tasters between Coalton College and the school, but it didn’t give enough info about the lessons, the curriculum, teaching methods and the like. It wasn’t specialised enough for each student. They just got them together in groups–it was rubbish."
"The careers advice was excellent. Many of the teachers were very good, very approachable, although there were a few problems in some specific areas. I always get the feeling that the whole system is hit and miss. There are a lot of teachers coming and going and they all have different standards."
"It’s very difficult for parent’s to give careers advice. If [she] decided to pack it in at [work], we would be behind her–we told her when she started that the very least she would find out would be that she liked it or hated it. It’s not as black and white as some people say. She did get some careers guidance at school, but she told them what she wanted and the guidance teacher wasn’t much help, as he didn’t know how to help."
Three parents said that the school’s careers advice had been good and one praised the school’s role in helping their child to apply to Coalton College. Further, the range of activities parents were aware of was good. In addition to the above, they mentioned–unprompted–weekly visits by the college, presentations by the college, open days, link tutors, careers days, and talks by local firms.
Discussion and conclusions
The comparison of Year 7 and Year 11 findings paints a picture familiar to researchers working in the UK, showing a pattern where children get progressively disenchanted with school throughout the course of their secondary education. The pupils appear to become less positive about most key curriculum subjects, less interested in schoolwork and homework and less likely to hand work in on time. Before arriving in Year 7, pupils are looking forward to making new friends, new subjects and new teachers (amongst other things), despite having some worries about drugs, homework, and strict teachers. Their parents see their children settling down, despite worries about bullying, which their teachers try to dispel. In Year 11, a minority of young people (as other studies such as Ball, Maguire, & Macrae, 2000 and Payne, 1998, have found) mainly from professional backgrounds were looking forward to going to university. Parents felt they had some say in this, whilst teachers on the whole reported concentrating on getting pupils into further education rather than higher education. Careers help was not viewed positively by parents. The results appear to show young people becoming less engaged with school, with low aspirations for the future. In this concluding section, we examine some of the possible explanations for the increasing disaffection of young people in secondary schools and the strategies that, if the increase in attainment is real and linked to attitudes to school, appear to be beginning to make a difference.
British theorists (Lacey, 1970; Hargreaves, 1967; Ball, 1981; Abraham, 1995) have argued in the past that social and educational differentiation (i.e., separating children by ability into different "streams"–equivalent to "tracks" in the United States–or even into different schools) has led to a polarization of youngsters. The setting of pupils within subjects of the National Curriculum is now more or less universal in secondary schools in the UK as it is seen by headteachers as being necessary to maximize measurable achievement. The achievement measures (SATs tests and GCSE) are themselves banded into different levels of difficulty and teachers select children for the appropriate test. Differentiation-polarization theory DPT (Hammersley, 1985, provides a good overview) hypothesizes that groups who see the broad benefits of education (those in the more academic tracks, who tend to be in higher social classes) stay positive over time, whereas those in less academic tracks become increasingly negative. This then has an impact on examination achievements. There is some evidence supporting this in the studies cited above, as well as in some U.S. studies (see, for example, Berends, 1995). Further work has shown that this differentiation can continue into college. For example, Bates’ (1993) young female carers and Rosie’s (1988) training scheme "lads" became more accepting of their lot in college over time, despite resisting initially.
However, there is evidence from Sweden (Erikson & Jonnson, 1996–cited in Hatcher, 1998), where tracking is virtually non-existent and almost all teaching is in mixed-ability groups, that differences in attainment–and attitudes–persist between social groups. In addition, DPT can tell us nothing about why the disenchantment with school cuts across social classes.
It appears, then, that we need some other account of how these differences in attitude between year groups arise. There is a substantial literature on motivational problems in school (see Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000, for an overview of mainly U.S. literature in this field), focusing on the problems of maintaining interest within school. In Coalton, this is seen to be a particular problem, and several projects have been set up aiming to reduce demotivation at school, particularly in the later years. For example, the "Learning to Work" programme (see Monteith, Coldwell, & Holland., 2001) involves a variety of methods including student teacher mentoring, extended work experience and short vocational courses to try to re-engage students with education. There is a difficulty with this approach, however, if the aim is to re-engage students with learning in schools, specifically. An evaluation, conducted by the authors (Coldwell, Garland, & Holland, 2001) of a project that provides placements in Coalton College for pupils aged 14 to 16 in construction-related courses, found, in common with a national study (Golden & Lewis, 2000) that, whilst pupils responded very positively to the very different learning environment of a college construction centre, their attitudes to learning environments available in school actually worsened. However, other initiatives in the district have focussed more closely on improving motivation within school.
One such initiative being undertaken by the LEA School Effectiveness Team aims to improve attainment across transitions and develop the quality of teaching and learning throughout schools. There has been a focus on improving pastoral links between primary and secondary schools for many years in Coalton, and there is a large and growing body of literature on this aspect of school transition (most recently, in the UK, work by Maurice Galton’s team; see Galton, Gray, & Rudduck, 1999). There is less literature on curriculum continuity (notably Lee, Harris, & Dickson, 1995), but what there is points to the need for primary and secondary teachers to work together to ensure the curriculum in secondary schools fits the needs of each child. We will be reporting on the interim findings of our evaluation of this particular project at the end of 2001, but our preliminary work indicates that, as schools develop better individual target-setting, better use of data and better focus on the progression of each pupil, attainment improves and–hand in hand with this–pupil attitudes improve. An important feature of such work (as noted by Rudduck et al, 1996) is that the pupils themselves are able to work on setting their own targets, enabling them to take responsibility for their own learning and development.
The fact that so many of our pupils seem to have a relatively unsatisfactory
experience in secondary education is of profound concern to all, but in
Coalton at least there are signs that these experiences are improving,
and that innovative work in schools is driving these improvements forward.
We hope that these preliminary findings will add to the growing understanding
of this problem at the local, national, and international levels.
The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution made to the evaluation of the Highway to Success programme by several colleagues from the Policy Research Centre in the Business School and the Survey and Statistical Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, in particular Jane Fearon and Maria Smith. We also wish to thank the pupils, teachers, education professionals and parents of Coalton who made this work possible.
Glossary of terms
Education Action Zone (EAZ): a small area (containing in the region of three secondary schools and ten primary schools) receiving additional government funding to raise educational attainment. See http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eaz/.
Further Education (FE): education provided to people over the age of 16, at a level below that of university courses, often in vocational and technical subjects. Usually delivered at colleges.
General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE): qualifications in individual subjects (e.g., mathematics, history, science) usually taken at age 16. Grades are awarded from G (the lowest) to A* (the highest, introduced as a "higher grade A"). Grade C and above are generally taken to be equivalent to passes in the older O Levels that GCSEs replaced and are frequently referred to as passes, although grade G is in fact the pass level.
Higher Education (HE): education at university course level, usually undertaken at age 18 or older.
Local education authority (LEA): body responsible for the provision and co-ordination of public education services at the local level; similar to the U.S. school district.
New Opportunities Fund (NOF): National Lottery fund aimed at developing small-scale, localized technology-based projects.
Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED): government organization charged with ensuring schools meet required standards, primarily by inspection visits.
Single Regeneration Budget (SRB): government fund used to regenerate economically and socially deprived areas. Each year produces a new "round" of funding. These rounds are distinguished chronologically by number–Highway to Success is funded by "SRB3."
Standard Assessment Tests (SATs): national tests in English, Mathematics, and Science taken by 7-, 11-, and 15-year-olds.
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Endnotes
ii The school district is located in a relatively socially and economically deprived area (see its OFSTED report) and in all of the national comparative measures for educational performance falls below national averages
iii The vast majority of pupils in the UK move from primary school to secondary school between Year 6 and Year 7.
iv See glossary. Percentage of pupils attaining 5 or more A*-C grade GCSEs is the standard measure of attainment at 16 in England
v These include pupil interviews and focus groups as part of a construction project, a work-related action research project and a Key skills project—see the raising achievement website at Sheffield Hallam University.
vi See glossary of terms
vii This refers to short (one-to-ten-day) courses available to pupils after leaving school at 16
viii See glossary for definitions of HE and FE
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Mike Holland taught science and mathematics in several 11-18 comprehensive schools in the UK and is currently Programme Leader for Secondary Initial Teacher Training at Sheffield Hallam University. His current research interests include teacher professionalism, school inspection, and strategies to raise pupil achievement. His PhD was gained from the University of Leeds for research into the evaluation of science courses for pupils 11-14. m.r.holland@shu.ac.uk |
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Mike Coldwell is a research fellow based in the School of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. His main research work is on projects aimed at raising achievement among secondary school pupils in South Yorkshire. His background is as a Business Studies teacher in English secondary schools and he has extensive experience of working on raising achievement and increasing inclusion in schools. He is currently working on his PhD on Post-16 destinations of young people. m.r.coldwell@shu.ac.uk |
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